I was out in Omaha a few weeks ago for a private function at one of my accounts. I had some time to kill before the event started and I was thinking it may be a good idea to go get something to eat as I didn't know how long I'd be tied up with the function. I did a quick look for restaurants not too far away and a barbecue place turned up in my search. It was just down the road a bit from my account and I took off for a quick dinner at Tired Texan BBQ.
The couple who owns Tired Texan - Chip and Christine Holland - aren't even from Texas. Chip Holland grew up in Birmingham, AL and Christine grew up in the Omaha suburb of Ralston. But it was in Birmingham where Chip Holland learned all about true Texas barbecue when he was a teenager working for Ira "Tex" Ellison who owned the original Tired Texan Barbecue.
Tex Ellison grew up in Texas and joined the United States Navy just after World War II ended in 1945, weeks before his 17th birthday. In 1948, he was told that he could learn electronics if he transferred to the U.S. Marine Corps. After transferring to the Marines, Ellison learned about new technologies of the day - primarily radar and televisions. After finishing his electronics training, Ellison was stationed at the Marine Corps air station near El Toro, CA where he became the first African-American air traffic radar technician in the armed forces.
While he was stationed at El Toro, Ellison missed the authentic Texas barbecue that he loved to eat growing up and he decided to do something about it. Along with his wife, Madeline, Ellison fashioned a small barbecue joint at the air base that he ran part-time until he was transferred in 1959 to Merritt Field, a Marine Corps air base just outside of Beaufort, SC.
Ellison wanted to do barbecue at his new posting, but noted that there weren't any buildings suitable at Merritt Field for a barbecue shack. Ellison had a group of Marine privates under his command and he commissioned them to build a small place that would house his barbecue joint. In the early 60's, Tex and Madeline Ellison opened the Tired Texan Country Club that sold barbecue at Merritt Field. As a second side job from his duties with the Marine Corps, Tex Ellison also repaired television sets for the Marines and their families stationed at Merritt Field.
After Ellison was discharged from the Marine Corps in 1967, he "retired" to Birmingham, AL where Madeline was from. Knowing that barbecue would be big in Alabama, he found a small concrete block hut on the north side of Birmingham and opened up Tired Texan BBQ. It was open only three or four days a week - Tex was still fixing televisions on the side - and while open hours would be sporadic, they would sometimes stretch deep into the night. But everyone from cops, lawyers, prostitutes, doctors and late-night revelers knew when Tex's barbecue joint was open from the smell of smoked meats emanating from the smoker.
Tex eventually moved Tired Texan BBQ to a building not far from Legion Field on the west end of downtown Birmingham. It was at this location where 16-year-old Chad Holland first came to work for Ellison and to learn the art of Texas barbecue. Ellison's specialties were ribs, brisket, pulled pork, smoked chicken, and sausage. But he didn't let a lot of other parts of the meats go to waste, either. Tex Ellison was famous for a sandwich that used parts of unused pulled pork, sausage, chicken necks, gizzards, livers - anything that he could grind up and throw in the smoker. He topped the ground meats with an ultra hot sauce whose recipe he traded his delectable pig ears for with a local Mexican restaurant owner. Tex and Madeline would watch as customers who bought the sandwich would go through cups and cups of sweet tea to get the burn out of their mouth.
By the mid-90's, however, Ellison was truly a "tired Texan". He was in his late 60's and his wife was in her mid-60's. Headaches of running a restaurant mounted over the years, and a beauty shop had moved in next door to him and complained that there was no parking in their shared lot when Tired Texan was open. Tex thought that he'd had enough, but there was one last event that he felt he needed to stay open for.
In 1996, the Summer Olympics were held in Atlanta, but a number of college football stadiums in the southeast were used for preliminary round soccer games. Birmingham hosted seven of those matches at Legion Field, walking distance from Ellison's barbecue joint. Many of the fans from other countries didn't come to Tired Texan BBQ, but for some reason the Mexican fans did. And they spent a lot of money on his barbecue. Once the Mexican national team was eliminated by eventual Olympic gold medal winner Nigeria in Birmingham, it wasn't long that Tex closed his doors to the Tired Texan BBQ.
Tex couldn't shake the barbecue jones, however, and he was invited to open a small barbecue joint inside the local VFW hall in Birmingham. He did that for a short while before he suddenly and mysteriously disappeared one evening in late 2001. A few weeks later, Ellison's car - with him in it - was found in a river about 35 miles east of Birmingham. A Honda automobile assembly plant had opened in Lincoln, AL, about 45 miles to the east of Birmingham, and Ellison had talked about putting up a trailer with a smoker to sell barbecue to workers at the plant there. It was said that Ellison - who was diabetic - suffered a seizure or became disoriented during the drive between Birmingham and Lincoln when he went to check on things at the Honda plant and drove off the road and into the Coosa River. Ellison was 72 at the time of his death.
After learning from a mentor such as Tex Ellison, Chad Holland used his in-depth training at making Texas-style barbecue at various restaurants in the Birmingham area for a number of years. When he would travel back to Omaha to visit Christine's family, he would try some of the barbecue joints in the city. While he thought many of the places were good, he thought he could do something a little bit better.
Pictured at right - Christine and Chad Holland
A business opportunity opened in late 2016 when a Perkins location on Omaha's southwest side had closed and became available. The Hollands felt that it was time to make their move back to Omaha and open their own place. After renovations and the installation of barbecue smokers, the Hollands opened Tired Texan BBQ - the name was a homage to Tex Ellison and blessed by Ellison's widow for the Hollands to use.
Like any new restaurant, there are going to be growing pains and Tired Texan had their share. Staying true to the methods Tex Ellison taught him as a teenager, Chip Holland cooked his meats low-and-slow. Briskets and pork butts would take 15 to 18 hours to cook. Ribs would take about 5 hours. And his smoker capacity was limited at first. On many days, Tired Texan would run out of meat before they were scheduled to close. And after a favorable review came out in a local publication, more people would come to try his smoked meats. And sometimes that meat would run out sometime after the lunch rush. It angered many first time visitors who were greeted with "Sorry, Out of Food" signs hung on the door. But barbecue purists knew that the best places usually do run out of meat early on. However, once the Hollands were able to expand their smokers, continually running out of ribs, brisket or pork during the course of a day became a thing of the past.
It was a little past 6 p.m. when I pulled into the parking lot of the Best Western Plus/Kelly Inn Hotel near the corner of S. 108th and L Streets. (see map) Tired Texan BBQ is attached to the hotel - a place I used to stay at from time to time when I would come out to Omaha for business a long number of years ago.
As you enter, there's a bar area with corrugated metal facings on the bar. 9 or 10 chairs were positioned at the bar with Edison lighting hanging from the ceiling over the bar itself. I thought a moment of just sitting at the bar, but the place wasn't all that busy so I waited for a hostess so I could get a seat in the dining area.
A young lady came out from the kitchen area behind the bar and greeted me at the hostess stand. She took me to a booth further back in the restaurant. The walls were paneled with faux barn boards, but tastefully done. The booths were spacious and comfortable. Behind two rolling barn stall doors was another room that could be used for overflow or private gatherings.
Another young lady by the name of Lisa came by to tell me that she'd be with me in a moment. She came back a couple minutes later to take my drink order. I got an IPA from the Pint Nine Brewing Company that is located a couple three miles just south of Tired Texan BBQ.
The menu wasn't that deep in terms of barbecue offerings. Tired Texan featured brisket, pulled pork and pork spare ribs for their barbecued meat offerings. I was sort of surprised to not see smoked chicken or the Texas barbecue staple of sausage on the menu. They did have barbecue sandwiches, a burger and a breaded chicken breast sandwich on the menu. For appetizers, they had a couple interesting items that included the Texas Tumbleweeds - small deep-fried balls consisting of shredded potatoes, bacon and cheddar cheese; and their Texas Loaded Fries that were fresh-cut French fries topped with a choice of either chopped brisket or pork and their house-made baked beans, then finished with smoked cheddar cheese and barbecue sauce. That sounded great as a meal just by itself.
Lisa came back with my beer and to tell me about the special they had that evening - burnt ends with a choice of side and a corn muffin. I was thinking of getting the two meat combo of pulled pork and brisket, but when she told me they had burnt ends I was sort of torn. I asked her if there was a way I could get all three. She said that they sell meat by themselves by the quarter pound. "You can get the burnt end special and get a quarter pound each of the brisket and pulled pork," she explained to me.
And that's exactly what I did. For my side, I took the baked beans out of the choices of potato salad, fries, mac & cheese, creamed corn, cole slaw - your way: a choice of poppyseed, creamy, vinegar or peppercorn ranch mixed in. The baked beans came with fried onions on top. The meal was served on a small cookie sheet on a sheet of wax paper.
The burnt ends were plump, juicy and had a great smoky flavor. They were basted in Tired Texan's house barbecue sauce that had a sort of sweet and vinegary taste to it. I thought the regular sauce was just OK. Their "hot" sauce was similar in taste only more sassy with a bit more of a zippy flavor on the tongue. It wasn't spicy, per se, but it definitely woke up my taste buds. I liked it better than the regular sauce.
The pulled pork was moist and juicy, and it also had a great smoked flavor. But the brisket was just outstanding. The beef was tender and delicious. It had a deep dark red smoke ring along the top near the bark. With a bit of the hot barbecue sauce on all the meats, it was a wonderful taste explosion.
The baked beans were very good, as well. It turned out that the fried onions - the same kind you put on green bean casseroles at Thanksgiving time - were a nice touch that I had never seen before or even thought of as a companion with baked beans. Adding some of the hot barbecue sauce zipped up the taste of the beans even more.
Now, this was a LOT of food. There was no way that I was going to be able to finish this meal in one sitting. I didn't even touch the cornbread muffin - I don't care for cornbread all that much - and there was still a slice of brisket and similar sized piles of pulled pork and burnt ends left on the platter. I had also finished just about four bites of the beans. I thought I'd take the rest to go and have it for lunch the next day before I left Omaha.
The only problem is that from the time that I got there just after 6 p.m. to the time I was finished eating, the place had filled up and filled up quickly. The three young ladies - including Lisa - were running around in different directions, and quite frankly they forgot about me. I was done, my dealer's event was starting in about 15 minutes and I wanted a to-go box and my check so I could get going. It was finally about five to ten minutes after I really needed to be going that Lisa finally appeared with my check and I asked her for a to-go box. It took her another five minutes for her to come back with my check and a box, then another five minutes for her to come back with my credit card once it had been run. Suffice it to say that I was late getting back to my dealer's event. But it didn't matter as it wasn't that well attended as we were just on the cusp of the "social distancing" phenomenon that is so very real in our world today.
Other than them getting busy and forgetting about me, I have to say that my experience at Tired Texan BBQ was more than favorable. The smoked meats I had - burnt ends, pulled pork and brisket - were all wonderfully delicious. I especially liked the fried onion-topped baked beans for my side. And it was a lot of food, as well. I was able to have almost the same sized meal - my only one of the day - for lunch the next day. I've had barbecue at a few places in Omaha over the years - some have since gone out of business - and I'd have to say that I may prefer Tired Texan BBQ to the other ones I've tried. It would definitely be worth a try if you're in Omaha and looking for good barbecue.
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